The disclosure relates generally to the treatment of turbomachinery, and more specifically to surface machining tools and methods of treating turbomachine structures (e.g., rotatable blades) with a laser emitter.
Post-deployment treatment of components, such as repair, machining, structural modification, etc. (collectively identified herein as “treatment” or “treatments”), can improve the lifespan and quality of a larger turbomachine assembly without requiring the manufacture of a new, complete assembly and/or individual components thereof. Several components of a turbomachine, such as rotatable wheels adapted to receive blades therein, can engage other components via direct mechanical contact during manufacture and/or operation. Frictional contact between the components can help to maintain a desired mechanical relationship between two or more components, e.g., axially adjacent rotor-mounted wheels of a turbomachine assembly, rotor-mounted compressor or turbine blades, etc.
During the servicing of a gas turbine assembly, a servicer may wish to remove one or more contaminants from the various components thereof. In a conventional treatment process for treating a component, the turbomachine servicer can remove one or more targeted components from the turbomachine to apply one or more surface treatments, e.g., sanding, burnishing, wet grit blasting, detergent washing, dry ice blasting, contact-based machining/blending, and/or other processes. These techniques generally require one or more treating materials to contact exposed surfaces of the component, e.g., to remove contaminants or other undesired materials. Treating a component in this manner can also produce secondary changes to the component structure. Some structural changes to the component may be unanticipated, or difficult to avoid despite further adjusting of the surface treatment machinery. For instance, contact-based surface treatment of turbomachinery may form a recast layer on the surface of the component, e.g., a layer which exhibits increased roughness or reduced material strength. In some cases, improper contact between the component and some treatment materials may contribute to the erosion of a component over time. Even when these effects are negligible, contact-based surface treatments generally require additional time and costs from removing a targeted component from the turbomachine assembly before treatment, and reinstalling the component and/or other components after treatment.